reviewvancouver: Dancing on the Edge 2011

Edge 3 provides its audience with a thought- provoking evening of dance as it tackles a kaleidoscope of emotions through merging contemporary dance with a variety of cultures. The program comprises two performances entirely unique from each other in style and emotion.

Through expressive movement, and appropriate costume and music, Asht Nayika blends Contemporary, Flamenco, and Kathak in a lifelong journey through eight states of women; each depicting distinctive reactions to various amorous entanglements. While these reactions vary across age and culture, which is accentuated by the interchanging dancers and dance styles, the emotions in this piece are tangible and unifying; creating a bond between each woman irrespective of their background.

The performance features three dancers along with Usha Gupta herself as the story teller. Alida Nyquist-Schultz, an exquisite contemporary dancer, represents the woman of the ‘future’ within the trio of dancers, while Esperanza Linares’, an accomplished Flamenco dancer, portrays the ‘present’. The role of ‘past’ is brought to life by Sudeshna Maulik, an acclaimed Kathak practitioner who has performed throughout North America, Europe and India, and who brings a beautiful presence and energy to her dancing.

At the finale, Gupta addresses the audience, explaining the role of each dancer and speaking to the array of emotions and strengths within women as they make their journey through life.
The second and final performance, Happiness, I found to be more difficult to figure out, leading me to a desire for further insight in to the choreographer’s intentions .That being said, the dance was done in the Butoh style, which I had never experienced before and found to be interesting and very different from anything that I had come across previously.

The movements and facial expressions created by experienced Butoh dancer Salome Diaz were highly unusual, involving slow and repetitive controlled motions; a signature of this style. The choreographer, Barbara Bourget, is a Vancouver legend in dance and is known for challenging both her performers and her audience with the pieces she creates; a trait which I believe reveils itself in Happiness.

Edge Three not only opened my eyes to new styles of dance, but also left me with questions; about the performers and styles, as well as the concepts that were brought forth within the performances themselves. As I feel that a good performing arts piece will inevitably leave you with this feeling, I can say with earnest that I enjoyed the evening and would be interested in seeing more from both Usha Gupta and the Kokoro Dance Company.

Edge Three provides it’s audience with a thought provoking evening of dance as it tackles a kaleidoscope of emotions through merging contemporary dance with a variety of cultures. The program comprises two performances entirely unique from each other in style and emotion.

At the finale, Gupta addresses the audience, explaining the role of each dancer and speaking to the array of emotions and strengths within women as they make their journey through life.

The second and final performance, Happiness, I found to be more difficult to figure out, leading me to a desire for further insight in to the choreographer’s intentions .That being said, the dance was done in the Butoh style, which I had never experienced before and found to be interesting and very different from anything that I had come across previously.